ActionsRebellionThe Throok and the Host of accompanying spirits observed the actions of the other gods from just outside the World. They did not use the spreading animate life in their creations directly, but perhaps it was an influence or inspiration in their forms of life. Either way it was pleasing to The Throok, and the life forms it had founded continued to spread and multiply.

The views of the host of spirits however, were varied. The battle with The Throok for control of the Fractal Tool that caused them to be formed from the shattering of a god was in the distant past and all but forgotten. Some of their number had been ambivalent toward the World, and had continued to explore the Void until they had been summoned. Others had watched The Throok and other gods act on the World with great interest, and desired to act upon the World themselves.

Among this latter group were Four of the greatest of the Host, Four of the largest fragments of the former god. Their interest in the world turned to panic. The god to whom they had pledged allegiance seemed content to watch the World in entranced silence. Would The Throok act on the world again? Would they have an opportunity to assist in these actions? They called out to The Throok for an answer, but there was no reply.

It was then that a collection of spirits who had wandered farthest into the Void returned, carrying amongst them a minor Tool. The Four came upon them and asked them of the tool's nature. "We don't yet know," said the leader of the group. "We haven't had anything to test it against. We think it can pry things apart, loosen things that are stuck." The Four were struck with the same idea at once. They seized this new tool and threw themselves at the Fractal Tool and the distracted Throok.

The Throok snapped out of its trance the instant the Fractal Tool was attacked, and turned to see who was responsible. The Four spirits had been awkwardly fused together by the Fractal Tool's power, causing them to lose their grip on the Prying Tool. It and a small portion of the Fractal Tool fell to the World. Their location was lost, for The Throok's full attention and burning rage was turned upon the mangled collection that had once been four of the leaders of the Host of spirits.

The Throok seized the traitorous clump of spirits and threw it toward the Godheart, where they would have already been if not for The Throok's previous mercy. But the spirits ricocheted off the surface of the Godheart and hurtled out into the void. The Throok turned to the stunned Host of spirits and spoke.

"You greedy, foolish, covetous, traitorous spirits! Once you attacked me and I showed mercy, saving you from the churning inferno of the Godheart. And this is how you repay me? Who among you was in league with those vile usurpers? SPEAK NOW!"

The spirits all cowered in fearful silence. It was apparent to The Throok, even though clouded by anger, that the attackers acted on their own.

"The traitorous spirits have been expelled, cast into the Void where they will be forgotten. Once again I will show mercy on the rest of you, but know that my compassion is not endless. If any of you strike against me, my Tool, or the beautiful creations in the World which I love, Judgement will be swift and terrible. I will grind the lot of you to the smallest point possible and cast you back into the Void. You will be so insignificant and so distant from your brethren, the only thought you will be able to muster is that you are terribly, utterly, inescapably alone. AM I UNDERSTOOD?"

The Throok was perfectly understood.

Diversify

The Throok turned again to the World, hoping that it would ease the rage still coursing through it from the Rebellion of the Four. Much of the world was still blank stone. This needed to change. For animate life to reach greater potential, it needed more habitats in which to adapt.

The death and rot of the slime sea was a great disappointment, but also an opportunity. The Throok took some of this rotten algae, mixed it with the Proto Life, and spread it as seeds across the peninsula south of the grassland and the coast of the land further south. Slimes and molds spread. Mushrooms the size of trees sprouted. Instead of grass, red vines, neither plant or animal, carpeted the land. Soon strange creatures, similarly somewhere between plant and animal, roamed the mushroom forests.

Even out on the barren white stone plains there were signs of life. Small groups of jagged stone creatures roamed aimlessly. How would they fare in a harsher, yet more energetic climate? The Throok struck the stone near the southern shore of the mainland and bored deep with the Fractal Tool, until it struck magma around the Starlines. This flowed up to the surface, forming a great cone volcano that flowed down to the coastline. Plain white stone was replaced by ash and volcanic rock, rivers and lakes of lava, and chasms peering down into the molten deep.

Across the sea to The south, The Throok drew the heat out of the land, creating an icy tundra. Hardy trees clung to the coast, but the interior was mostly empty and frozen, made even more inhospitable by being so close to the Thin Places.

The thought of what life would come to be in these challenging habitats eased the rage in The Throok's mind. There was much to look forward to.

ActionsBirth of Salvarian the Created GodIt was fate that gave birth to Salvarian, the created god. The Host of Four, banished by the Throok, floated through eons of nothingness before chance brought them to a tool that had escaped the attention of the other gods. The tool itself was that of a rod, with a much smaller rod laid across the top, giving it the figure of a T. Had the spirits course varied even slightly in their timeless travels, there would have been no discovering the tool. Luckily for Salvarian, that was not the case. Upon touching, a great flash of light was cast into the surrounding void as the Four and the tool were melded into one. And so, Salvarian was born.

At its birth, Salvarian was unaware of its existence. The Host of Four had completely been absorbed and remade by the power of the tool. And so the created god wandered aimlessly through the void, not knowing where it was going. In time, Salvarian came across the godheart and looked upon existence with great interest.

Fine DesertSalvarian saw the dust of the east and was dismayed. The god enjoyed its purity and simplicity, but something was not right. Salvarian’s pondering led to the conclusion that this dust must be remade. The god descended to the world and gathered up dust, remaking it with the god’s tool.

Once it was done, the god cast the finer sand onto the bare stone with great force. Massive storms swirled into existence from the sudden barrage, eating into the ground as the winds carried the fine particles on their currents. Channels were carved into the stone as the weaker rock melted away under the erosive forces.

When the storms finally died down and the golden sand settled, a section of the original stone stood proud and tall amidst the new desert. This greatly pleased Salvarian. The god descended to the raised point and looked out upon what it had created.

ActionsTesting.Spying the finer, friendlier sand created by Salvarian and the molten earth exposed by the Throok, God Eater had an idea. It called Desi to an undeveloped region just outside of the jungle barrier. Both the God Eater and Desi used their power to spread sand far and wide, bridging the gap between the desert and the jungle.

Continue Testing.With the area covered in sand, the God Eater moved onto the next step. Its idea was to test out the desert climate so that more could be learned. If it was a threat, God Eater would figure out how to stop it. And if it was not a threat, then things could continue as they were. The God Eater diverted a portion of the jungle river so that it would flow through the dry lands. All along the riverbanks life began to spring up in defiance of the climate. Bit its impact was limited to the region near the river and not far beyond. This was evidenced by the region south of the new river, which was isolated from the main desert, yet yielded no territory to the lush, green jungles and fields to the north and northwest. Peering far to the south, the God Eater observed the lava flows created by the Throok.

More Testing!!A low rumbling shook the entire desert and a great plume of dust rose up from where the God Eater was working. The ground was slowly sinking toward a single point, with the God Eater at its center. As it crept lower and lower jets of steam and gas began to erupt from fissures. Sand was blown far and wide, with deposits even reaching distant mountaintops. After many tense moments the God Eater looked up from the bottom of its depression. The earth beneath its feet glowed red hot, though it still remained solid. Desi approached the rim of the gulf and looked down into it. The God Eater was deep in thought. Mere yards beneath where the God Eater stood the world's molten layers were waiting.

Oops...The God Eater wondered what more heat would do to the desert, and the Throok had shown God Eater where a large amount of heat could be found. It dug deep, down to the bottommost layers of solid earth. The rock and soil glowed in the depths and materials that the God Eater had thought solid and unbreakable had become as fragile as leaves. Truly this plane was a miracle! Smiling to itself, the God Eater raised its hands toward the Godheart. The time was now! A terrible explosion rocked the desert as the God Eater released the planet's heat into the massive depression of sand. A column of red hot lava stretched into the heavens and could be seen all across the small world. It remained for several minutes before shrinking back down into the planet.

The God Eater hadn't stopped the flow though. It had stopped on its own. In fact, the God Eater hadn't had much time to enjoy the culmination of its experiment. As it was, the God Eater found itself back in the void, dumbstruck. It raced back to the world and found Desi.

My child! What is the meaning of this!?

Desi looked around frantically as her master called out. "Alas, I cannot see you, my lord. Where have you gone? I thought..."

The God Eater's avatar had been blown far across the desert by the blast but using its strength managed to get back fairly quickly. It stopped at a strange line in the sand about a mile out from the massive depression the God Eater had made. The sand had stopped at a point, beyond which was a pristine, flat field of dark glass. Cautiously, Desi stepped out onto the sheet of glass. It was still warm and somewhat slippery. Bits of sand danced across its surface here and formed twirling strands in the air just above the glass.

"This is..." Desi began to speak but her master finished the thought.

Astounding!!

Both found themselves standing at the edge of the deep depression. The flat glass surface suddenly and sharply began to descend. It went down, down, down all the way to the edge of the molten layer and a deep, dull light radiated from the lowest reaches.

"What's that??" Desi pointed with all four hands. "There's something down there at the center..."

The God Eater was there almost instantly to see what was lurking below. Desi tumbled after, having trouble finding a good foothold on the incredibly slippery bowl of glass that its master had managed to form. At the very bottom of the hole, just above the glowing core was the God Eater's body. It was solid obsidian and stood stark against the bright, hot light. Both arms were still outstretched to the Godheart. Its three eyes seemed to channel the light coming up through the starline and they shone bright and red like a beacon. Any spark of life that the form had was long gone and its dog-like face was frozen, the God Eater's beastly grin still visible.

"W-what is this?" Desi asked, alarmed. "Your form is..."

Not to worry. I must have just broken it!

God Eater shrugged in a way that only it could perceive and began examining its work. Desi, meanwhile, stood transfixed and stared at the statue. Her thoughts were disturbing to say the least. She stared at her master's lifeless form. And while she recognized that the God Eater would simply be able to make another form, she could not help but wonder about herself. She was not a god. What would happen if her body was destroyed? The only reason she had a body to begin with was because her master had given her its old form. There was no recollection of anything before the master had made a body for her. What about after the body was gone? Did life simply end for beings such as herself?

ActionsExplorationSalvarian enjoyed its elevated position, looking out over the golden desert it had created. Several decades passed with the created god unmoving, keeping watch over its small corner of the world. It would have continued to do so for centuries more had there not been a disturbance in the world.

A massive plume of dust rocketed into the sky spreading out into a dome that carried the sand to where Salvarian was. Inside of the plume was a dull red light that beat like the Godheart itself. This light grew in strength until it pierced the dome itself and reached into the sky, an arm of red trying to reach the Godheart.

Curious as to what was going on, Salvarian stirred from its vantage point and cut a wide circle around the focal point of the disturbance. Doing so brought it closer to the creations of the other gods. Where Salvarian had only created fine sand, the other gods had created grasslands, and forests, and jungle. Water had been used to cut channels into the rich earth as it flowed into the oceans.

The Created God even saw the beginnings of mortal life. It was upon seeing these creations that Salvarian decided to take a physical form. Influenced by Zel’s creations, Salvarian’s physical form was cast entirely of stone. Two legs and two arms supported a head fashioned in the form of the god’s tool. The hulking mass stood nearly 30 feet tall, and the earth cracked with each step the god took.

Raise the LandThe god gathered up bits of grass and fossilized forest and flew to the edge of the jungle. Marshaling its power, the god raised up the ground beneath its feet until it was towering above the surrounding landscape. Wanting to move forward, Salvarian continued to raise the land in front of it, each step creating a new tower of rock and stone.

The god followed the edge of the dust desert, keeping away from the disturbance, but constantly watching it. When it reached the end of the desert, Salvarian began its work. It spread the grass as it walked, continuing to raise the land into mountain peaks. When it reached the coast, the god planted the roots of the fossilized forest at the foothills of the mountains.

When this was finished, Salvarian cut channels for the water to flow through the newly sculpted land, where it linked with a river that had already been carved.

ActionsThe White LandsThe Ternion wandered among the other gods, but did not interact with them. Their un-triplicate disorder caused the Ternion something akin to distress. One whom he was able to tolerate more than others was the one who was called the Throok, as his fractal nature aligned with the Ternion's own. While idly watching the Throok's busy labours creating new lands the Ternion noticed the Throok paying special attention to the pathetic, jagged creatures who had arisen of their own accord in the great white wastes between true lands. The Ternion was seized by a strange feeling of pity for these simple life forms, and immediately departed to the eastern coast.

These jagged creatures are of only one kind, when it is plain that life has three forms. Thought the Ternion. The low growth which slowly creeps across the land, the high growth which casts long shadows, and the moving life. Taking the Triune Motes the Ternion split one of the piteous creatures into three parts, for it contained the seeds of each of these kinds of life. Soon the white rock was lush in its own way with peculiar jagged crystalline plants, which caught the Godlight and scattered it into three times three colours. Among the white plants gamboled strange jagged white creatures, less piteous now they had been unburdened of the other crystal life which had been locked within them.

MegatreesThe Ternion knew that the high life which cast long shadows needed space, so it scattered its seeds widely, and after a time they sprouted and grew into great white jagged trees as tall as mountains. Though they took aeons to mature, their fruit would undoubtedly be very magical and valuable.

ActionsThe Blazing LandsBorishin saw that other gods were digging deep into the bedrock of the world, and marveled at how the heat of the Godheart made stone as free and flowing as water. Such heat was too marvelous a tool to go unused, he decided, and so he scattered the seeds of his mighty stone forests in the lands to the south.

There they grew slowly, as was their nature, but he tore at the heat of the world and pour it into them. Suddenly what was slow but long lived became quick and brief, even more so than their greener counterparts. Growing in the fertile ash of their forebears, the vegetation would grow to adulthood and bloom in a matter of days before being consumed by conflagration. Seeds borne aloft on heated winds would land in the ash left behind and begin the cycle over.

Sea of AshNot all ash settled back upon the land from which it had sprung. Carried south, much of it settled into the ocean waters, darkening and poisoning the seas.

Verdant PlainsYet more settled in the lands to the north, where plants without the fiery disposition that had spawned it thrived upon the fertile dust.

« Last Edit: March 19, 2014, 05:51:54 pm by Neoadept »

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Nefarious? Nearly. Ne’er-do-well? Never! Neither nearly names this narrator. Naive and knowledgeable, notorious and inscrutable, this nascent Nero is known naturally as Neoadept.

ActionsClaim the LandThe Throok was pleased with the lands it had formed so far, and sought to spread their reach. The region of slimes and fungus spread across most of the southern landmass, with a pocket of lush swamp popping up on the western coast. As the red vines and giant mushrooms spread to the edges of the Thin Places, there were pockets of white stone that even this hardy life could not colonize. Barren plains stretching into the infinite would be a bold warning to any life to go no further. In the places where life did reach to the very edges of the World, laws of nature broke down and truly bizarre things could be found.

Cold tundra claimed the furthest tip of this landmass, and all of the one further east. Vast sheets of ice stretched out into the sea. In the depths of the frozen regions, life forms composed of the permafrost arose.

Around the southern regions of the Fractal mountain range the grasslands spread, and at the meeting of the dead algae sea and fertile ash clouds, another swamp formed.

Claim the Sea, tooThe richness of this ash gave The Throok an idea. Gathering up some of the ash and the excess sand that had been blown across the world by several eager gods, The Throok sank it along the western coast of the main landmass and stirred in extra life. A shallow region of the sea formed. It was filled with life: rich coral beds, tidy kelp forests, and schools of all manner of swimming beasts. Wide sandy beaches and dunes washed up in many places along the coast. The Throok was very pleased.

ActionsThe Boiling SeaLod looked on with wonder as the other gods struck deep into the World, unearthing the heat of the Godheart. Lod resolved to attempt an experiement of his own. Returning to the barren North he had worked before, he approached the small inland sea on the edge of the forest. With a mighty swing of his Tool, the waters parted before him and he struck the seabed, boreing deep into the World.

As the water ran back to fill the sea again, heat from the now exposed Godheart rose up from the depths. The water quickly began to warm, and boil. The entire sea was soon churning as vast quantities of steam rose off of it.

The MistwoodsAs the rolling clouds of steam spread off the boiling sea, so too did the forests spread across the blank white of the World. As the steam cooled, it hung in the air as a thick, cold mist, dampening everything it touched. The forest took to this new climate voraciously, growing thick and tangled, every surface slick with dew.

The Snowy NorthTo the far North, the forest still spread, though with much less gusto. The thick clouds of mist began to falter at this distance, giving way to great snow drifts and blizzards, covering the land in a thick blanket of snow.

ActionsTo the mountains!The God Eater looked west and was determined to push the jungles as far as they could go. And so it spread until the trees reached the Fractal Range that had been constructed by the Throok. The long jungle river wormed its way through the new growth, forming pools and lakes. One particularly large lake appeared just outside of the dense jungle in a large grass clearing next to the Range. Desi took a particular liking to this place. Elsewhere, a truly deep area of jungle developed. Creatures unaware of the forest paths would surely be lost.

To the sea!Further away, the God Eater spied a small area of greenery raised by Salvarian, a newcomer. This god was quickly making itself known and its works were very impressive. The God Eater decided to give a jolt of life to Salvarian's grasslands and spread them to the east and south. To ensure the continued health of the grass in its battle against the desert, the God Eater continued the long river so that it met the southern sea. By doing this, the God Eater created a water route that could be used to get all the way up to the inland sea and (eventually) the northern oceans. The newly completed river also represented a way for sailors to avoid the deadly seas to the southwest en route to the friendlier seas to the southeast.

Who are they??With its work complete, the God Eater returned to its island for the first time in a long while. Much had changed. The trees had grown quite tall, though not ridiculously so. A thick canopy now covered most of the island and huge shafts of light shone down from above. All around the sounds of smaller forms of life had emerged. Flying things, walking things, climbing things, and all kinds of things now stalked the small garden paradise.

There was something else, too. The God Eater had just noticed it. They were souls! All kinds!! They seemed to be flocking to the island, attracted to the extreme liveliness of it all. Maybe the souls liked a place where life seemed to go on endlessly? Perhaps it was irresistible to them!

The God Eater was still in an intangible form so it could not easily traverse the small ocean of souls that had congregated. Recognizing this, God Eater called upon the Staff of Soul Dominion. The Staff appeared in the air and the souls quickly parted. This was more like it! A following was exactly what the God Eater had needed. Still, as it moved the God Eater began to detect something even more strange. They were souls but very different from the others. Their origin was muddled and less clear and the energy that they possessed seemed to have a certain conscience about it.

While unseen in the physical plane, a great storm rose up around the God Eater and the sea of souls began to flow like water. It circled around the God Eater's presence and gained speed as more souls were pulled inside. The chaos continued for a long while until a loud screaming filled the Void around the God Eater's island. Then everything stopped. The soul storm had ground to a halt and coalesced into a small ball. Four tiny beacons of light were all the remained in the Void space of the island. The God Eater, falling out of the Void and into the world, took the physical form of a small bird and landed on a branch high up in the canopy. Within one of the bird's talons was the ball of souls, gathered up and silenced so that the God Eater could address the four outsiders.

Where are you from, travelers of the Void? Your presence is unlike those born of the world. You have the presence of those born of a god. And yet you are not here with the rest of us? I have freed you from the Void's chaos so that you may answer my questions. You are safe, at least for now... come back to the world and tell me your story. SPEAK!!

The four bobs of light were struck by a profound power and gained the power to speak from the Void. Little did the God Eater know of the story they would weave and of the treachery of the other gods.

ActionsBring Forth the DustSalvarian was pleased by the expansion of the grasslands, as it watched the God Eater at work from its mountain perch. Before Salvarian could communicate with this other god, he was gone. These changes to the landscape added to Salvarian’s view, but there was still a large expanse of nothingness beyond the grasslands. The plain stone stretched off into the distance.

Salvarian decided to change that. It pulled the dust from the north, covering the plains. In the god’s mind the dust was better than nothing.

Carve the CanyonsHowever, upon returning to its vantage point, the created god was still unimpressed with what it had created. The view was still flat and plain, only now it was a different color. Before Salvarian could rest once more, something had to be changed.

Pulling water from the river at the foot of the mountains, Salvarian channeled the flow to carve into the dust and the stone beneath it. The water curved and swerved through the dust before finding the ocean in the south. Yet every time the created god ceased channeling the water, the dust would soak up the water and turn into mud. The only result of Salvarian’s work was the carved canyons that cut deep into the surface. At some points the canyons were so deep that entire mountains could be placed inside of them with their peaks failing to protrude above the surface.

Disappointment was Salvarian’s first reaction, since the god enjoyed the movement and flow of the water in the rivers. But as the god looked closer at its creation, it became pleased with the result. The canyons were still beautiful in their own way, even without their running rivers. The remaining moisture continued to collect at the bottom of the canyons thanks to the shade from the cliffs.

Salvarian crept into the canyon system in its physical form, finding the deepest section to rest. Protected by the cliffs, the created god found some peace.

ActionsSpread the GreenThe Throok looked over the World and saw that the original barren white spaces were nearly filled up, but a few patches still remained. Just a bit more vegetation would cover them up. The space near the Fractal Range was consumed by the grasslands. In the shadow of the fiery and volcanic regions, the peninsula to the south sprouted lush wooded areas, with jungle on the northern side and colder mistwoods on the south. Swamp grew up on a lonely patch of land on the easternmost edge of the world. Weird marshes and bogs here reached out into the infinite of the Thin Places.

Pierce the EarthThe Throok took interest in the relative newcomer, the Salvarian, and its works. The god seemed strangely familiar to The Throok. Wherever this familiarity came from, the muddy canyons this god had made were pleasing. It was near these canyons, on the border of desert and jungle, that The Throok began a task it had considered since it had first seen the Structure of the World. For the World looped in on itself, the roof of the sky was really the bottom of the land. So what would happen if a hole were bored all the way through? The Throok found an area with no starlines beneath it and began to bore down with the Fractal Tool. The nature of the Tool did not lend itself to a single straight cylinder, so connecting shafts and great sinkholes formed around the pit at regular intervals. The Throok did strike a few minor starlines, but these were sealed up, their energies forced elsewhere in the branching network of the Godheart. Finally The Throok burst through the dome of the sky, and happily descended again to observe its works.

...But it has ConsequencesAs The Throok descended, it felt that something was wrong with the Fractal Tool. Perhaps it had been more weakened than first thought when a piece had been dislodged by the attack of the Four rebellious spirits. Perhaps using it to create a formation against its fractal nature had been too much of a strain. But the hissing sound and sparks of light it emitted were very troubling to The Throok. Caution would have to be taken in future use.

As The Throok reached the surface, it was apparent that drilling a hole through the World was not without consequences. Shifting the starlines had stirred up geothermal activity in the area. Throughout the jungle and desert this activity had broken through to the surface. Patches of acrid, steaming ponds, boiling geysers, and bubbling mudpots dotted the landscape, especially around the muddy canyons. In some places the canyon walls liquified and caused vast mudslides. One of these was over the place Salvarian had sought rest, and completely by accident, the god was covered up by a mountain of mud.

ActionsRectify Critical Reality ErrorThe Ternion cast its consciousness across the world, which now had scant few pockets of lifeless emptiness thanks to the experiments and crafts of the gods. It was particularly pleased with the great nexus of three rivers which cut through most of the continent, but on closer inspection the individual actions of the gods as they had gone about their uncoordinated work had created something horrible. The river flowed two ways simultaneously. The Ternion looked on in horror as the water of the river churned as though confused, flowing one way and another simultaneously, a fish was witnessed splitting in two and joining up again backwards, so its head sprouted from the end of its tail, pieces of flotsam would occasionally traverse the entire length of one stretch of the river only to suddenly dislocate in space and appear back at their point of origin.

Unable to think of a way to make the river flow three ways without causing more anarchic misery, the Ternion instead elected to raise a great barrier of mountains at the river's southern outlet, which became a new source, rather than a delta.

Fangs of the TriuneThe Ternion saw that with the barrier in place a peninsula rich in the pure white life it had created had been isolated from the mainland by an almost impassable range of mountains. Having witnessed the personal island of the God Eater, the Ternion raised up great jagged fangs of rock from the sea bed around the peninsula. Here the Ternion's creations would be protected from any mortal meddlers from outside.

ActionsHarvestPondering upon what to do with the final scrap of unformed land, Borishin strikes upon an idea. But his plan would take a large amount of life force. Spying fields of flowers bordering the thin places, he takes their essence. The brittle laws of that place would have been unkind in any case.

The Shifting IsleReversing the process he'd used to create the fossilized forest all that time ago, Borishin pours life force into the cold stone of the island and binds it in place. At first, it is as if nothing has changed, but over the course of centuries the land bucks and heaves, twitching as a slumbering giant might. Though slower by far than even the titans, the island would never be still, ever changing as valleys rose into mountains and mountains smoothed into plains.

« Last Edit: March 23, 2014, 09:00:16 am by Neoadept »

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Nefarious? Nearly. Ne’er-do-well? Never! Neither nearly names this narrator. Naive and knowledgeable, notorious and inscrutable, this nascent Nero is known naturally as Neoadept.